How To Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile

In a developing world where social media channels dominate forms of news, marketing and communication, it is as important to have an up-to-date LinkedIn profile as it is to have an updated CV. HR managers and recruiters are constantly searching the platform to find new candidates so it’s imperative your profile stands out. With that considered, here are a few ways to optimise your LinkedIn profile in order to be indentified by the people that matter.

Make Sure Your Profile Picture Is Professional Your profile picture is the first impression a head-hunter will have of you so make sure it is appropriate and professional. Make sure you’re the only person in the profile picture and that you are suitably dressed; your future consultant/employee will want to visualise the person with the skills they are looking for.

Customise Your LinkedIn URL Customising your LinkedIn profile URL is a small touch that can make a significant difference when communicating with hiring staff. Consultants often share profiles with clients and colleagues, so when they share a personalised URL, it looks cleaner, more professional and allows you stand out from the rest of the crowd. Follow these simple steps to do so.

Is Your Headline Descriptive? If you don’t proactively edit your headline, it will default to your last job title in your experience. This brands the company you work for rather than a glimpse into who you are as a person. Even if you don’t mention your job title in the headline, hirers will still find you in job title searches through your experience section. Therefore, make it unique in order to stand out. Operations Executive? Try Performance Driven, Fashion Retail Professional.

Don’t Skip Your Summary It’s very easy just to skip through the Summary section and go straight to entering your experience. This can be highly detrimental to your job search as this is the first section that allows you to properly express your personality. It’s becoming increasingly important for candidates to not only have the correct level of experience and skills but also to culturally be the correct fit for the company. If talent managers don’t think that your personality will match their needs, they will quickly lose interest.

Optimise Your ExperienceAlthough you probably don’t need to include as much information for a previous job as you would on your CV, it’s still important to give an adequate amount of description on your LinkedIn profile. Include keywords within the industry with detailing to the role; consultants search by these to find relevant candidates for their vacancies.

Skills Are Fundamental In order to fully optimise your LinkedIn profile, you must include different skills you have obtained throughout your years of experience. LinkedIn is incredibly searchable and by providing your different skills, recruiters can proactively find you easily when they refine their searches.

Display Your Contact InformationIf you’re looking for a new role, make sure it’s easy to contact you. If you don’t want to include your main email address for reasons of privacy, set up a specific account earmarked for public sharing.

Recommendations Complete The Perfect ProfileYour LinkedIn profile can sometimes be a lot of self praise however nothing strengthens a profile more than recommendations. This is a section often forgotten about, however can be the difference in the eyes of hiring staff. Have colleagues comment on the quality of your work in order to offer a third party dynamic to your profile. Demonstrate you have respect for your colleagues by leaving them recommendations also.

Stay Anonymous in Your UpdatesUpdates will alert your employers to the fact you are looking for a new job which is highly detrimental to your search. The good news is that if you want to be discrete with your updates then you can. So, in order to hide your profile changes, go to the Settings of your account, go to Privacy and scroll down to the section regarding ‘How Others See Your LinkedIn Activity’. In this section, you will see a title that reads ‘Sharing Profile Edits’. If you make sure this is turned on to ‘No’ colleagues will not be able to see your updates (except updating your profile picture as this is automatic).